State of the Program

[Norm Peterson]

That probably wasn't sky falling.  More likely there was a flock of geese flying over where you were walking, and ...

[AuroranHusker]

Nah, life is best lived in the present. It was a great ride late in the season in 2014 & the opposite late in 2015. Perhaps the roller coaster ride will be sky-high late in 2016.

[HuskerFever]

Can we just consolidate all of these threads into one "Player Carousel/Doubt in Nebrasketball" thread?

[Nighthawk]

State of the program:  We're fine.

 

Totally agree...but...and maybe this is a stupid question. Would it be wise for Coach to have a conference to say from his perspective the state of the program?  Yes we on this board are for the most part positive about the program...but there are other places where people are just the opposite of us. I guess...Would and/or Should he do a press conference now or just wait on making any public comments at this point?  I'm totally fine either way...doesn't damage my support in the least.

[AuroranHusker]

 

State of the program:  We're fine.

 

Totally agree...but...and maybe this is a stupid question. Would it be wise for Coach to have a conference to say from his perspective the state of the program?  Yes we on this board are for the most part positive about the program...but there are other places where people are just the opposite of us. I guess...Would and/or Should he do a press conference now or just wait on making any public comments at this point?  I'm totally fine either way...doesn't damage my support in the least.

 

 

I'd imagine Miles will have a press conference after the spring signing of McVeigh et al...

[49r]

 

 

 

Props I suppose to a loyal fan base which seems to view this season and its aftermath through a Husker red filter.  But the blind optimism is not necessarily rooted in reality. 

 

When a team falls apart so spectacularly (both during the season and now following the season) I look squarely at the coaching staff.  

 

Considering the resources at their disposal it is deeply concerning to be entering year four of this staff's tenure with so much uncertainty and instability.  

I just don't understand this line of thinking.

 

This team didn't fall apart so much as it just wasn't that good to begin with.  I'm not saying things were all rosey...clearly they were not with some attrition...but attrition happens in college basketball and one of the guys leaving is leaving to play ball professionally.   It's hard to blame TP's departure on Miles.   There aren't too many guys who average 18+ in the Big 10 as a 3rd year sophomore and 4th year junior who are going to return.   Its just the way it is.  I also take into consideration Miles past as to what he has done and what he did no more than 380 days ago.  

 

We speak about resources but we also conveniently ignore the things that work against us.   There's uncertainty because he inherited a sh!t storm.   You don't erase 100 years of ineptitude over night.  But maybe Rome was built in a day

 

 

People also like to conveniently ignore the 2013-2014 season when attempting to explain how bad of a coach Miles is as well.

 

Yep...that team had no business winning 10 games, let alone the 15 they won

 

 

Uh...they won 19....

 

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[AuroranHusker]

 

 

 

 

Props I suppose to a loyal fan base which seems to view this season and its aftermath through a Husker red filter.  But the blind optimism is not necessarily rooted in reality. 

 

When a team falls apart so spectacularly (both during the season and now following the season) I look squarely at the coaching staff.  

 

Considering the resources at their disposal it is deeply concerning to be entering year four of this staff's tenure with so much uncertainty and instability.  

I just don't understand this line of thinking.

 

This team didn't fall apart so much as it just wasn't that good to begin with.  I'm not saying things were all rosey...clearly they were not with some attrition...but attrition happens in college basketball and one of the guys leaving is leaving to play ball professionally.   It's hard to blame TP's departure on Miles.   There aren't too many guys who average 18+ in the Big 10 as a 3rd year sophomore and 4th year junior who are going to return.   Its just the way it is.  I also take into consideration Miles past as to what he has done and what he did no more than 380 days ago.  

 

We speak about resources but we also conveniently ignore the things that work against us.   There's uncertainty because he inherited a sh!t storm.   You don't erase 100 years of ineptitude over night.  But maybe Rome was built in a day

 

 

People also like to conveniently ignore the 2013-2014 season when attempting to explain how bad of a coach Miles is as well.

 

Yep...that team had no business winning 10 games, let alone the 15 they won

 

 

Uh...they won 19....

 

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

 

I believe nustudent was referring of the prior season to that, i.e. Miles 1st yr.

[royalfan]

If I am being completely honest with myself, I have both reason for optimism and concern.  First the positive things.  1. We still have a great arena and world class practice facility to recruit to.  2.  We still have a coaching staff that is very competitive on the recuruiting front.  We basically are ending cycle one, which was revamping the program with little time that first year with transfers etc.  It got us to the dance.  Now we have the second wave beginning, and there is reason to believe it is with a little bit more ammunition.  3.  Miles still seems to have a good personality for our program.  He helps keep us relevant.  With relavance comes slightly easier recruiting. 

 

Now for some negatives.

1.  X and O ability.  I am not sure what happened as I thought Miles was pretty solid on this front.  But it seems as if Smith actually did a lot of this stuff.  I actually think our defense was better before Molinari arriving.  We still had great rotations but had much more ball pressure and were far more annoying than simply packing it in more this year.   Also concerns me that we didn't try pressuring full court more with a smallish group with decent depth.    But what really concerns me is that flow our offense lacked.  Hell even the first year we became functional with a very low skilled attack.  We found ways to get good shots with Talley becoming the point guard and getting a lot of shots for Rey.  How could we not find ways to do that this year so often? 

 

2.  Shooting.  Seems like it has been a huge problem since Miles got here and it goes back well beyond that as well.  I have heard some coaches referred to as great shooting coaches.  Michigan comes to mind.  Seems like nobody ever is getting better at shooting under this regime so far.  How do we fix that?  We need to. 

 

3.  Pace of play.  I liked the Molinari hire at the time.  I believe I was wrong then for liking.  Assuming he was doing as much of the X and O stuff as I think he was, I do not think he is a very good X and O guy when not factoring in what his style does to recruiting.  When you factor in recruiting, I think he is hurting us.  Damn I wish Smith was still here. 

 

4.  Possible staff misunderstanding importance of bigs.  Admittedly, I have been a little slow to the party as well on this front.  I still think you can win without getting much scoring from your big.  But you need him to be a rim protector.  You need him to be able to finish a play on a pick and roll.  You need him to be a presence.  And if you don't have that, then you better have 4 guys that are very good three point shooters out there at all times to allow for great court spacing.  We didn't have either and it led to quite a mess.  Miles could get away with not having very good big men at the lower levels he has been.  Nobody had them.  This is a different ballgame. 

 

5. There is little reason for concern with some of the guys leaving etc and what really was going on.  I also heard some things that I didn't care to hear from our staff.  I am giving them the benefit of the doubt, but there are some reasons for concern. 

 

All in all, I don't feel as confident Miles will get us to be the really high level progrmam I am hopeful of having.  But certainly can still see it happening under him. 

[lanigan123]

Was never a fan of coach Mo. I still believe in Miles. Some of the doen turn this year was a much tougher schedule.

I think the offensive will improve. While we lose star power, I think the roster will show improvement this fall.

[golfer3]

Bottom line we have to swallow all of this and move on to the next season and the season afterwards.  No way can Miles get the boot.  We cant be too anxious to pull the trigger.  It makes the NU position unatttractive to other prospective coaches. Plus musical chairs is a turnoff.  Dont get me wrong Id love to see Miles somewhere else.  He relishes being the team clown too much.  Maybe he'll move on his own.

 

The bright side is we have White and a couple of 4-stars coming next season.  The late recruiting season is a tough go, hopefully we can nail someone who can at least play ten minutes a half next season.

[49r]

Bottom line we have to swallow all of this and move on to the next season and the season afterwards.  No way can Miles get the boot.  We cant be too anxious to pull the trigger.  It makes the NU position unatttractive to other prospective coaches. Plus musical chairs is a turnoff.  Dont get me wrong Id love to see Miles somewhere else.  He relishes being the team clown too much.  Maybe he'll move on his own.

 

The bright side is we have White and a couple of 4-stars coming next season.  The late recruiting season is a tough go, hopefully we can nail someone who can at least play ten minutes a half next season.

 

[cipsucks]

Bottom line we have to swallow all of this

Standhardinger, is that you? 

[Silverbacked1]

Well it is better than ending up on a Kleenex isn't it?

[Wayne Pesek]

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not comparing the state of the two programs as they stand on April 3, 2015.  However, in preparation for next season, one team must replace:

 

Frank Kaminsky

Sam Dekker

Duge Dukan

Traevon Jackson

Josh Gasser

Nigel Hayes (projected by some to be an NBA early entry)

Possible underclassmen transfers yet to be determined

 

By comparison, Nebraska must replace:

 

David Rivers

Leslee Smith

Moses Abraham

Tarin Smith

Walter Pitchford

Terran Petteway (probably)

 

Currently, Nebraska's 2015 recruiting class is ranked ahead of Wisconsin (and that doesn't include the addition of Andrew White).

 

I think Badger fans could also be currently questioning the (future) state-of-the-program.

 

In college basketball, teams can go through drastic ups and downs from year to year.  I'm trying to be optimistic.
 

[ajb5856]

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not comparing the state of the two programs as they stand on April 3, 2015. However, in preparation for next season, one team must replace:

Frank Kaminsky

Sam Dekker

Duge Dukan

Traevon Jackson

Josh Gasser

Nigel Hayes (projected by some to be an NBA early entry)

Possible underclassmen transfers yet to be determined

By comparison, Nebraska must replace:

David Rivers

Leslee Smith

Moses Abraham

Tarin Smith

Walter Pitchford

Terran Petteway (probably)

Currently, Nebraska's 2015 recruiting class is ranked ahead of Wisconsin (and that doesn't include the addition of Andrew White).

I think Badger fans could also be currently questioning the (future) state-of-the-program.

In college basketball, teams can go through drastic ups and downs from year to year. I'm trying to be optimistic.

I can get on board with this type of thinking. It's definitely much easier to rise quickly in basketball compared to other sports and it's just as easy to fall quickly. I think what would have calmed the waters is a little consistency. We were consistently awful for a decade (or more). Then Miles comes in and has a great season considering the team he has. The following year we catch lightning in a bottle and go dancing. Then come the expectations. Oh no. Then this season. Chemistry issues, all kinds of issues, disaster. In reality, the only difference between 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 was a little mojo, some calls, a few flipped results, and a run. The results were drastically different between the two seasons.

Miles warned us before the season regarding the expectations saying constantly that in 13/14 we "got hot". We overachieved. In 14/15 we underachieved. If we sucked in both seasons people would be jacked about our best recruiting class ever for next season. If we were mediocre in both seasons, people would be jacked about the incoming recruits. But when you have drastically contrasting results in this fashion, going from good result to terrible (in that order) and you combine that with the departure news, people are going to question what's going on and lose sight of where midline is. Right now, our midline is higher than its been in a long long time. Coaches are ready to put this last season to bed, find some missing pieces, get the new team together, and get to work to correct things.

[Cazzie22]

It is always going to be difficult for NU to compete at the highest levels of the B1G.  We seem to have a nice class coming in to compliment the returning players.  No reason to panic.  Team chemistry will be very important and Shields should be a fine leader for next year's squad.  If Bo Ryan is coaching Wisconsin, I wouldn't worry too much about the Badgers dropping for long.  

[jason2486]

Can we just consolidate all of these threads into one "Player Carousel/Doubt in Nebrasketball" thread?

[bleujay]

I think next offseason could be the time to hit the panic button if your new recruits do not pan out. Honestly, I believe losing Walt is addition by subtraction and that has been discussed ad nauseam over the past couple days. Most on here expected TP to be gone. The only unexpected loss that I feel has a significant lasting effect is Smith. He looked good as a freshman...if its true that Miles told him he'd get most of his time at the 2 and he left because of that, that's really tough because I would have tried like heck to make more minutes for a player of his caliber. If that means benching Parker...so be it. But I'm not paid the money to make tough decisions. If anything its an indirect vote of confidence for Watson next season. In letting Smith go, the coaching staff has put their faith in a true freshman.. it will be interesting to see play out. But if Tai Webster is play a good number of minutes at point guard then I do not like the chances that NU makes noise in the reg. season/ postseason. I don't like "giving up" on a player who still is growing, but concurrently he has not shown the ability to be a solid contributor in the Big Ten. Your season next year really appears to hinge on how much AWIII, Morrow, and Watson can immediately contribute.

[gobigredbrah]

Keep petteway and get immediate help in the front court (edwards or leslee smith type juco PF/C or transfer PF/C) and i think this team can reach the ncaa tourney next year.

[King James]

I do not understand why so many discussions about concerns somehow turn into a referendum on Miles.

 

I think it is perfectly reasonable to be a little concerned about hearing about 2 to 3 departures from rotation players, especially heading into year 4.  For some in this thread and others to say that this puts Miles anywhere near the hotseat is pretty dumb IMO.  Likewise, for someone to say that just because somebody may have some concerns at this point, they are not being loyal to Miles is unfair.  You can both have concerns and still support the coach.

[Silverbacked1]

I do not understand why so many discussions about concerns somehow turn into a referendum on Miles.

I think it is perfectly reasonable to be a little concerned about hearing about 2 to 3 departures from rotation players, especially heading into year 4. For some in this thread and others to say that this puts Miles anywhere near the hotseat is pretty dumb IMO. Likewise, for someone to say that just because somebody may have some concerns at this point, they are not being loyal to Miles is unfair. You can both have concerns and still support the coach.

No you can't King this is a message board and it is all or nothing Damn It!!!

[hskr4life]

I think next offseason could be the time to hit the panic button if your new recruits do not pan out. Honestly, I believe losing Walt is addition by subtraction and that has been discussed ad nauseam over the past couple days. Most on here expected TP to be gone. The only unexpected loss that I feel has a significant lasting effect is Smith. He looked good as a freshman...if its true that Miles told him he'd get most of his time at the 2 and he left because of that, that's really tough because I would have tried like heck to make more minutes for a player of his caliber. If that means benching Parker...so be it. But I'm not paid the money to make tough decisions. If anything its an indirect vote of confidence for Watson next season. In letting Smith go, the coaching staff has put their faith in a true freshman.. it will be interesting to see play out. But if Tai Webster is play a good number of minutes at point guard then I do not like the chances that NU makes noise in the reg. season/ postseason. I don't like "giving up" on a player who still is growing, but concurrently he has not shown the ability to be a solid contributor in the Big Ten. Your season next year really appears to hinge on how much AWIII, Morrow, and Watson can immediately contribute.

 

 

Parker has done everything that has been asked of him... If Smith left because he was asked to play the two, then ok, you have to let him go.  Smith isn't the coach... he doesn't know whats best for the team.  HE doesn't get to dictate where he plays.  Once he gets that opportunity, you have other guys that start to try that crap and the chemistry goes straight down the tube.  If Smith really wanted to be here and be part of the team, he would accept his role and fight like hell for playing time.  I don't care if Miles would have asked him to play the 5... if you really wanted to be here then you would play the 5 and give it all ya got.